Forty years ago, our own, local, Consolidation Coal Company, in contracted service to, and at the behest of, our own United States Government, told us, quite plainly and directly, how to go about "Making Liquid Fuels From Coal".
One of the inventors named in this United States Patent is Consol scientist Everett Gorin, whom we have already cited multiple times in the course of our reportage.
What we find of most interest in the full patent Disclosure, however, is how clearly the fact that Coal can be directly converted into liquid fuels is not just plainly stated, but illustrated.
In an opening schematic, a pile of Coal is shown with an arrow directing it into a relatively simple maze of clearly-labeled pipes and vessels.
Another arrow points out of the other end of the pipes, to the word "Gasoline".
The inventors, and Consol, did not want the "point" to be missed: Coal can be, directly and efficiently, converted into Gasoline.